Pulp Mills Win Round On Dioxin

Water Board Bucks Health Department

RICHMOND — The State Water Control Board voted Monday to allow companies to release more dioxin into state waters than earlier suggested by the state Department of Health.

The new dioxin standard was recommended by the board's staff and favored by the state's three paper companies, which emit dioxin as a byproduct of the paper-making process.

Two of the companies, Chesapeake Corp. in West Point and Westvaco Corp. in Covington, discharge dioxin into tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay. The third, Union Camp in Franklin, is located on the Blackwater River.

The board's unanimous decision was met with outrage from the Environmental Defense Fund, which fought for a strict standard for the release of the suspected cancer-causing agent.

Peter L. deFur, a staff scientist with the fund's Richmond office, charged that the board was bending to pressures from the paper industry.

"The board is essentially using the paper industry as their technical experts, discarding the best scientific judgment," deFur said. "Don't drink the water, and don't eat the fish. That's what they just said."

The new proposal would limit dioxin effluent to 1.2 parts per quadrillion, or ppq. It has been likened to the equivalent of 1.2 seconds in 32 million years, and in quantity to the palm of a hand compared with the total land area of the United States.

The fund, a national group of lawyers, scientists and economists, had proposed a standard of between 0.06 ppq and 0.01 ppq.

All states must adopt the EPA's dioxin standard of 0.013 ppq or give good reason why they can't. The health department in December suggested a standard of 0.056 ppq in a letter to Richard N. Burton, the board's executive director.

Burton said amounts under 1 ppq cannot be detected using existing techniques, making such standards hard to enforce. The EPA standard, he said, has not been successfully enforced where it has been implemented.

"I'm concerned about creating a false sense of security in the public," he said.

To compound matters, two reports challenging the toxicity of dioxin were given to the board Monday.

Board member Henry O. Hollimon Jr. said he believed data surrounding the dioxin controversy is "a bit soft" at this time.

"It certainly would be incumbent upon us to set a standard we can enforce," Hollimon said.

Manning Gasch, an attorney representing the state's three paper mills, said he was pleased with the board's decision.

"We believe it's based on the best science available," Gasch said.

According to an industry estimate, meeting the new standard will cost the three Virginia paper companies $145 million.

DeFur predicted that the standard will not be approved by the EPA, which has final say in determining the amounts of certain toxic substances that enter waterways.

Overturning the decision and setting a more conservative standard will take at least a year, said David Bailey, a senior scientist for the fund.